Without Esme
by FelicityT
Summary: AU. Carlisle never met Esme but still had his family. How would this affect Twilight? Aiming to get this complete by September 2012.
1. Back in Forks

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters but the story is mine.**

EPOV

This was the 2nd time we had come to Forks. All of us loved it. There was so little sun we could almost be normal.

It hadn't changed much since we were last here 70 years ago. Sure a couple of generations have grown up but the basic geography had not changed at all. The school, the diner and the local shop were all in the same place. Before we moved back to Forks we had a look at the local directory to see who still lived there. We recognised 75% of the surnames out of the 3000 listed.

We were both saddened and relieved to realise that only 1 person we knew from back then was still alive but they were only 2 when we left so they would not remember us. To be on the safe side we also checked the school achieves but they only went back 25 years so they had no record of us. This sorted we moved in to our new home and settled in.

The house we had purchased was a 3 storey old build, with glass walls on 1 side overlooking the Olympic forest. Unusually we did not have the normal fight over who got which room because it was perfectly laid out.

I suspected Alice was behind that as she was fed up of the usual squabble over rooms. I suppose now that she knows us so well she didn't need to bother asking. I got a room with one of the glass walls on the far side of the building. I planned to thank Alice for that mercy.

It was bad enough having super hearing let alone hearing and seeing through the minds of 3 perfectly matched couples. I knew Carlisle had the same difficulty but he managed to work nights most of the time and he couldn't read minds. Sometimes my 'gift' is more of a curse.

After everyone had unpacked, aka when Alice had finished handing out new clothes, we rejoined in the 'dining' room to fill in Alice & Jasper in on Forks.

This boiled down to telling them who was original to this town and who had came here in the last 70 years. As we had had no time to integrate with the locals we did not know if there were still any stories about us.

As mentioned previously it was obvious no one remembered us directly but stories did tend to get passed down from generation to generation so we couldn't be too careful. Just as we were finishing off Alice had a vision which left her stunned.

I quickly tuned in to see what had caused her to react but by the time I had focused there was just a blank. This had never happened before and there was only 1 explanation that would fit. Jasper sensing my shock and Alice's uneasiness demanded to know what was going on.

I was still unable to formulate a coherent sentence but I knew I only needed to say one word; "Werewolves". It only took Carlisle ½ a second to work out what was going on. He quickly judged that I was incapable to do anything so he took charge.

He quickly explained to everyone else what was going on. I was still out of it so I only caught some of it but it seemed like Carlisle was explaining about our last visit again this time speaking on something all of us had forgotten; that fact that there were werewolves aka shape shifters in a town 15 miles away.

Thinking back to it, it had come up at one point in passing but we had forgotten the relevance and anyway surely the gene had been wiped out. As Alice proved this was clearly not the case.

Alice's ETA of their arrival was 30 minutes, which had been 20 minutes ago. So that meant we had 10 minutes left to prepare us for the visit? I was able to move once I had got past the original shock though by then the house was already finished. With that finished we then talked about what we were going to do next.

Should we deny everything and say it was a coincidence or just admit it and renew the treaty?


	2. Wolves & Erica Phillaps

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters but the story is mine.**

EPOV

#We decided that the safest thing to do was to renew the treaty. We had enough trouble trying to get them to agree to the treaty in the first place we would be stupid to try and double cross them now.

The next question was how we greeted them. Not many people need to know how to greet people who A) were the grandchildren of who you had previously known 90 years ago, despite B) the fact you hadn't changed in your appearance over the time-span & C) the people you were greeting wouldn't mind killing you.

We settled for a casual look. Emmet & Jasper had decided to amuse themselves with the new Nintendo Wii which was keeping them captivated. Occasionally thought of the cool aspects of having shape shifters next door although when they got to 25 I decided to burst their bubble and tell them that we had barely been able to stop them planning killing us so the '10 ways to annoy them' options weren't going to happen in the foreseeable future.

Carlisle decided to look at one of his medical textbooks. Rose & Alice disappeared upstairs to do some make up or something. As I had nothing better to do I zoned out and started playing the piano. 2 minutes later I was aware of some new thoughts in my head. Thankfully they were peaceful. The Quileutes had finally got themselves a brain.

I quickly passed this information on to Carlisle and resumed playing. 3 minutes later we heard a noise outside the front door it sounded as if they were debating whether or not they should ring the doorbell. After 30 seconds in which we enjoyed listening to their debate which was rather interesting for me as I could hear what they were thinking and through Jasper I had an accurate idea of their emotions.

It seemed Billy wanted to do this peacefully, Harry wanted to barge in & Quill was remembering that we could probably hear the argument and was silently pleading for us to just open the door. I told Carlisle to give in to Quill's request. The shock Billy & Harry had when Carlisle opened the door and asked them would they rather meet the family and then go over the treaty or go over the treaty then meet the family was funny to say the least.

They had forgotten much about us. After the first 10 seconds whilst they gathered their thoughts they decided to meet the family first. By that time we were all reconvened in the living room as Rose had pointed out the last thing we wanted was them to think they were lunch by us all convening in the dining room.

They didn't actually smell that bad it was more a muted form of their ancestors stink. Carlisle introduced us individually starting with me then going on to Rose & Emmet and then Alice & Jasper who all politely shook the hands of the 3 'men'.

Whilst he was doing the introductions Carlisle asked me whether we should tell them of our gifts. I decided that he might as well as they can do nothing about it. So after the introductions Carlisle mentioned our specific gifts.

As expected it came as a shock to them and it took them time to regain coherent thoughts. After that episode they then decided to move on to the treaty immediately accusing us of breaking it which we had to get Jasper to defuse the situation and make them see reason.

After 2 hours of negotiating they told us the treaty was still valid and if we had any reason not to follow it we must check in with them. With that sorted they left and we went back to our activities. Carlisle had signed up to the local hospital as the new deputy manager and he had enrolled the rest of us in at school.

I still don't get why that was necessary as we knew everything that was being taught and we could just go straight to college or at the very least say we were home tutored. For the first time ever Carlisle gave in and said we could do the lessons outside of school just as long as we went in for 1 lesson a week for every subject. Between the 5 of us we decided a compromise was better than nothing so we agreed.

This left me with 9 subjects; Advanced maths (it was mandatory, even for us), English media, new science, Music, current affairs, computer technology, history, Spanish & Physiology (as it was a new speciality).

I chose the ones that were the least likely to be identical to the last 15 schools I've been to. Spanish was the only one I did not like in the line up but I had to take a language so I picked the one I was the most fluent in with the idea of being able to study my own languages in the lesson.

When all of it was taken care of and it was organised that we would start in 2 weeks Rose & Emmet & Alice & Jasper went on another honeymoon which included shopping and hunting.

Carlisle & I decided to go to the local haunts to make ourselves known. It was amusing how many women were interested in US and how many were interested in our history. I can't wait to see what rumours have gone around by the time we go to school.

It seemed before we came in all the conversation centred on the gossip that there was a new head of school that had come down from Arizona with her 17 year old daughter. Apparently her husband died in a train accident whilst being on parole for assault which carried a 6 year sentence because he had already abused her.

Although as this was 15 years ago most of the single men in the small town think they had a hope. My thoughts quickly flashed towards Carlisle but I stopped myself quickly as reality set it. Who would want to date a vampire? Even one as humane as Carlisle was still an immortal vampire.

Whilst I was thinking that through I caught the end of Carlisle's train of thought. He was thinking about the girls in Forks and was wondering if anyone would stand out to me this time around. As soon as he saw I had noticed he added an apology to the end of it. This had all taken a second so nobody noticed we had even paused in greeting the people of Forks. Their minds weren't that original.

They got excited about the littlest of things and lo and behold that 2 new families had arrived made us and the new head the centre of gossip in the small town. Only 1 person was not focusing on us and was instead concentrating on the homework she had to hand in at the beginning of term and whether or not it would get an A or an A*.

I made a note to get to know her as although we are vampires we had decided to at least be sociable this time around. Predictably when word got around that Carlisle was single a lot of the single, and a few married, woman instantly made themselves known to Carlisle and persuading him that he does not need 'the children' if they were there.

Even without my help Carlisle knew the intentions of the woman and stated as publicity you could get that he was not interested in a relationship. I know the person he ever loved was Esme Platt from Dartmouth and he refused to check up on her or even make contact.

That reminded me of the other new family, Erica & Bella Phillaps. According to the people in the diner they pronounced it Tll-lap and they had moved from the Dartmouth area. Erica had a fully-fledged physiology degree and was hoping to bring that in to action in our small school.

Bella was going to be in the same year as me as I was 'pretending' to be 17. Still at least we wouldn't be in school the whole time. Maybe I'll get a chance to do some more charity work out of state. At the moment I had just started working in liaison with the Seattle area.

Charlie Swan was my boss but he wanted me to do my work interviewing criminals as I was good at it. It only mildly helpful that I could read their minds I had enough experience to know what to look for.

And I had only been doing this for 6 weeks. I suppose I should teach the rest of the officers so that when I disappear off the face of the Earth they can continue the good work. Thanks to my help they have got 13 people behind bars and 20 more cautioned.

I have also helped free 10 prisoners that were wrongly held. I had used one of my aliases Antony Masen to get the job but as I had proved myself helpful no one cared about any paperwork other than my birth certificate that Jasper had got from J.

The fact that I refused to be paid also made me popular and when people asked me how I coped I just replied vaguely about a trust fund in Die Schweitz which was actually true.

Back to the present, I decided that I would go to MY meadow to just relax and to get away from the house. Carlisle was on an out of town visit doing charity work at an orphanage in Seattle.

Bored I went for a quick hunt and was it was just after I had finished draining a deer I got a text from Alice telling me to rush to the Quileute border on the main road.

Surprised I did as she asked and did not expect what I saw. I smelled it first, a woman was having a panic attack and they were taking her to hospital. From Quill's head I saw that they had just telling her about us though not telling her we were vampires for some reason this sent her in to the panic attack. With a shock I realised that this was Erica Phillaps but the scent was telling me something else. How could this happen? This was not an Erica Phillaps this was Esme Platt from Dartmouth University and the woman who Carlisle was in love with.

I then remembered why I was here. Alice must have seen something happen and wanted me to intercede. I was careful not to breathe in case there was any blood or that that would alert Esme to the fact that she was being carried by me.

It wasn't until I had got to the house and Rose had taken over that I breathed and then wished I hadn't, there was an absolutely delicious scent on her body but as it wasn't hers it must be Bella's.

Before I had time to think I had rushed outside going back the way I came until I heard Emmet following me. He was pleading for me to stop and pointed out that she was over the border and it wasn't worth breaking the treaty as much as I disagreed, the scent was the most mouth watering thing I had ever smelt, it gave me a small amount of time to think and I started heading to Canada.

I noted that Emmet was still following but all I knew was that I had to get away. At the Canada border though I slowed down and Emmet caught up with me.

We then went hunting in the local forest and to my satisfaction I found a mountain lion. Emmet was still being extremely cautious around me but had decided that I wasn't going to kill him if he talked. He then drew my attention to the other problem. Carlisle's love was at our house.


	3. Dartmouth

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters but the story is mine.**

Esme POV

It had been 17 years since HE had died and I finally felt free. Going to Forks to be the new head teacher reminded me of my own school career.

My parents had practically abandoned me as soon as I could speak. I still lived in their house but I had to follow strict rules and never saw them. I became pretty self-sufficient as soon as I could. And my day was boring.

As I had nothing better to do I put all my effort in to my studies. Before I knew it I was Vale-Dictorian and graduating. I then won a full scholarship to Dartmouth.

I enrolled in an architect course which meant I had to take fashion, English, Computer design. It was in these classes I saw the Cullens 5 beautiful children who kept to themselves. I knew from the gossip going around that their adopted father was the new chief at the university hospital and he was extremely good.

There were 3 other believable rumours going round, 1 that all the children apart from Edward were together something which 1 glance at their table could easily be validated also that they were top in all their classes.

Although I felt slightly jealous that they could have the looks, the money and the brains I instinctively knew it was not their fault and that they should not be blamed for being fortunate.

Whilst I was thinking this through I felt certain that for half a second Edward stared at me with a killing stare but before I could react he replaced it with a forced smile and went back in to string at nothingness although when I though when I thought about it I'm sure I saw curiosity, surprise and a smirk in that ½ second gap.

There was 1 more rumour going round and that was whenever it was sunny they would either go camping or get here for the before dawn lectures. No one knew their reasoning but no one cared viewing it as their quirk. I would bet most people didn't even realise that there was a correlation.

At the start of the 2nd term I started my fashion course and I was partnered with Alice Cullen. She was extremely bubbly and could talk a mile to the minute.

However she did tend to 'day-dream' a lot although when I asked her why she just shrugged it off and started speaking about another subject. She also seemed to daydream often before I asked her to slow down and she slowed immediately.

Her explanation was that at the Cullens everyone liked talking and it was easier to talk quickly to them. I enjoyed the lessons with Alice although she was extremely passionate. Although with the clothes she wore it wasn't surprising.

They were all extremely expensive and it looked as if they never wore the same clothes twice. She did confide in me that she bought most of her siblings clothes because they were hopeless at picking clothes that matched.

The only thing weird about her was that she never let me touch her skin after one time when it was extremely cold yet as smooth as satin. Also in the 2 years that I saw them they never seemed to change their appearance.

But I never voiced my findings because no one else commented on them. Occasionally I saw that Edward would look at me as if I was dead but it would always vanish as quickly as I noticed it.

Alice's boyfriend, which was such a redundant term for the love emanating from the 2 of them, Jasper was doing a physiological degree and seemed to find it fascinating as when she wasn't talking about fashion she was talking about him.

I never saw much of Rosalie but she was always the most beautiful person I ever saw and it was a natural beauty rather than plastic which I saw a lot of in those days.

Her boyfriend Emmet seemed to have gone mental on the muscle but seemed to be completely in love with Rosalie although Jasper sometimes seemed to be irritated at them whenever they started going too far being passionate.

Edward seemed to be the 5th wheel a lot of the time but didn't seem to care. He also helped out at the hospital as apparently he had an informal medical degree from living with Carlisle for so long.

I didn't see much of them out of class as they seemed to always be busy. I concentrated on finding myself some friends. I quickly fell in to a 'bad' group.

It started off okay but then it turned bad as soon as Lauran joined in. She and Jessie started making the group more elite and because I was naive I joined in. It wasn't until my best friend Anabella, or as she was known to friends as Ana, broke both legs whilst trying to do one of the drunken dares that I realised that this was getting out of control and I had to pull the plug on this group.

The only silver lining of that incident was that I got to meet Dr Cullen. He was as every bit as handsome as they said although I tried my very best not to I instantly fell in love with him.

I was startled that the day after he treated me, as I had some minor injuries myself from the dares and it was easier for him to treat 2 people together, he took a week's leave and it wasn't even sunny which was a first for him.

However I knew that I could not live the dream but I still held on to it. As soon as the Cullens finished, as they were in the year above me, they and Dr Cullen left for some unknown island.

I don't think they even told the university which one it was. It was after I realised that there was absolutely no hope in my fantasy that I started dating Jamie.

He was very nice to me and always a gentleman and after university I started dating Jamie. That was 17 years ago. As soon as I married him he changed, he started being controlling and even decided which visitors I should see. Within 4 months I was pregnant with his child but knew I could not go on in this way so I ran away the next week.

I worked in a coffee bar for a while to pay the rent but when Isabella was 2yrs old he came again. He visited on a Tuesday just as my shift finished and cornered me by the table.

I knew this wouldn't end well if I did nothing so I screamed and bought security running unfortunately for us they were on the other side of the building so he was already getting physical before security separated us. I only saw him once again when we were in court with me pressing charges for GBH.

They also ordered him to give up all his parental rights. He got sentenced to 6 years in prison but allowed a day's freedom on bail. It was in that time he chucked himself in front of the train.

I never saw the body, there was no funeral. This motivated me to change my career so I became a teacher at the local high school.

The name Esme Platt had too many negative connotations for me so I put all the 'E' names I could think of in a list and chose at random. Erica was old fashioned enough to be similar to Erica.

Coming up with my surname was harder but in the end, after ruling out Ttalp, I chose Phillaps which was quite close to Platt but not enough to instantly remind me.

I stayed at the high school until Bella was 17. It was clear to me then that she was having a hard time and she needed a change of scenery after accident.

With this in mind I went to Forks and got the job of Head Teacher. I only knew about Forks because the Cullens mentioned it once.

I heard them groaning that at least in Forks they could relax when they were doing the lessons. Here they had to wait while the teacher explained it and take notes.

I briefly wondered at why this would bother the perfect Cullens but I didn't bother when I came up with no answers. Nevertheless that conversation stayed in my brain and 18 years later I was here in Forks.

After 15 years of teaching at high school level I had a fundamental knowledge of teaching but this would be the first time I attempted to be a head teacher. Thankfully for me I still taught a lot of lessons in my speciality, psychology.

When I first mentioned it to Forks school they seemed unsure about whether it would fit with their current syllabus but I insisted that it would help the pupils so I got my subject put on the timetable.

And I reassured the staff there at the very least a new candidate for student's worst subject and that I wouldn't insist that it was mandatory after the 6 months trial period.

Everything was sorted and we moved in to our new house a week before school started.


	4. The night it went wrong or was it right?

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters but the story is mine.**

Esme POV

I had avoided seeing anyone until the day before school started and even then I only went out because it was sunny for a couple of hours, a rarity in Forks.

I had been invited to the Quileute bonfire tonight by Mrs Weber and as I was fascinated in the local history I accepted.

As I had nothing better to do I went to the local diner and ate out introducing myself to everyone. Thankfully for me there was another new family arriving that also had the spotlight so I decided to focus on them.

No one knew their surname but apparently they were very rich and had just moved down from Alaska so their adopted dad could work here. Why he would even bother was beyond me but he was now the new doctor and was starting work tomorrow.

There were a lot of rumours going around but the only ones that seemed to be anyway realistic was that there were 3 boys and 2 girls all adopted teenagers although they had apparently been adopted in groups so they were all extremely close to each other.

No one had seen them but the local housing developer said that the house in the middle of nowhere now had people in it. I asked who owned it and they said that only 'Cullen' had been put on the sheet. I gulped; surely there were more than 1 adopted family with the surname Cullen whose dad was a doctor? but then I realised that the ages did not match the kids would be my age and the doctor Carlisle Cullen would be around 52 now so not likely to be bothered to move from Alaska.

It turns out that he had come in the day before with his son Edward. The description matched what I knew of MY Carlisle & Edward Cullen, beautiful, pale, topaz eyes and that was just the physical description. However the ages were out the people they were describing were the same age as the people I knew 17 years so they could not be the same.

After finding out little more about the Cullens other than Edward & Carlisle were single and that they shared the house with a Rose & Emmet and Jasper & an Alice. Could they be anymore similar to the people I vaguely knew all those years ago?

Whilst I was pondering that it seemed that Bella was getting annoyed of the attention so I made our goodbyes and Bella and I went back home. I had wondered about the new family but did not realise how big a mystery they were.

Nevertheless I had a bonfire to go to and at 7pm Mrs Weber came and collected us and drove us to La Push. She also had her daughter Angela there to keep Bella company and they seemed to enjoy talking about something I had no idea about. I had no idea that this one trip could change my life so drastically...

_The evening had started ok. I enjoyed looking at the sea and getting to know everyone. The food was decent and I was warm._

_It went downhill when they suggested the telling of the legends. The first couple were harmless and pretty funny. But when it came to the legend of the cold ones most people had left as they had already heard them and it was only Bella and I left._

_A lot of the Quileutes had left as well so there was just Billy, Harry & Quill left. It had got quite cold but that wasn't the reason I was shivering. _

_It was because they had just proved my impossible theory. The 'new' Cullens here were the same ones at Dartmouth and they were 'different'. Just when I thought this couldn't get worse I started having a panic attack and the nearest hospital was in Forks where Carlisle Cullen worked. _

_But as I knew I had no choice I let them lead me to the car and get ready to go to the hospital. We had just got past the boundary line when I saw a very shocked Edward Cullen who hadn't changed a bit since I had last seen him all those years._

_I was just conscious to realise that Bella was nowhere to be seen and I was being carried through a wood to a very impressive house. Where a beautiful woman who I recognised as Rose started working on me. It wasn't the first attack I had so I knew what to do with little prompting._

_Alice quickly told me that Carlisle was out of town as otherwise I don't think I would have recovered. I still had no idea what the Cullens were apart from differentor specifically, NOT different. After an hour the dizziness had got considerably better and I was now realised I was in the care of an unchanging family I knew 17 years ago._

_Edward was nowhere to be seen but as I was about to ask Alice reassured me he was fine just. Also Carlisle had been called and told to come back to Forks ASAP. I really did not want to see his reaction to me being here._


	5. Childhood

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters but the story is mine.**

BPOV

I had a difficult childhood. Mom had been working at the school for as long as I could remember. This meant she had very little time for me. Don't get me wrong whenever she was here she was almost the perfect mother.

The problem lied in the fact that that was normally 6pm-7am even on weekends. I think the main reason she threw herself in to teaching was to get away from the reminder of Jamie, my dad.

Mom never really spoke of him apart from the one time when I was 10 when at school we were doing a family history tree and I was curious about my dad's side of the family as I had never seen them.

It was then she told me all about my father. About how kind he was at first then how he turned in to a monster. I also knew how he died; he chucked himself in front of a train whilst being on bail.

Occasionally mom reminisced about the good times they shared but that was always overshadowed with hindsight. Sometimes I wish she could just forget all about him and date someone else. But when I suggested it once she said her heart had already been stolen by Carlisle Cullen.

I heard about them much more frequently as although they didn't play a huge role in my mom's life she still respected them. I personally didn't get how you could fall in love with someone you had barely seen but according to mom it was possible.

I even tried looking up Carlisle online as all mom had was one small photo from the staff list she managed to take when she was helping out at the office. It was in the 'to burn' pile anyway so no one would miss it she said when I asked if it was theft.

But all it had come up with was about 10 Carlisle Cullens' who were doctors around the country who had been practising in the last 30 years. Only one of them had a picture and it was an almost identical one to the one mom had but belonged to a different doctor who was currently working in Alaska.

With my mom being distracted I spent most of my afternoons with our neighbours Renee & Charlie Swan and they became my 2nd parents. Charlie was even officially recognised as my carer. They convinced me to put work in to my studies and I managed to be in the top 10 in most subjects. The only subject I loathed was Physical Education.

Surprisingly I was good at running despite my otherwise clumsiness so I could just about play hockey and football but at any other sport I was completely incapable. I was naturally shy and had only 1 good friend at school.

My name is officially Isabella Marie Phillaps. Although I go by Bella Phillaps in everyday use. When we were in court due to Jamie I was given the temporary name of Isa Swan the surname of my neighbour and carer Charlie to protect my identity. As a result if I ever got bored I could change my name around. 1 time I got extremely bored and started calling myself Bella and it stuck. I had a lot of names. My mom goes by Erica Phillaps although she was Esme Platt before she had me.

When my mom realised how bad it was for me she told me to pack up and that we were moving to Forks. No matter that I had never heard of it before but somehow there was a head teacher post available and mom got accepted immediately.

This was in the summer holidays so I was able to start at the beginning of the year. However a quick Google showed me that Forks was extremely small and I was likely to stick out immediately and although I was not like the rest of the girls in my school I had no clue how similar the children in Forks would be.

Nevertheless after saying goodbye to Charlie & Renee we were off to Forks. I am still in regular contact with Charlie through email although at the moment all I can hear about is the miracle Anthony Mason, the volunteer who can tell immediately if someone is lying. Charlie at one point referred to it as if Anthony could read their mind.

He seemed to phrase the questions so he got exactly the information he was looking for. Yesterday Charlie sent a picture of him so I could have an idea of what this fabulous man looked like. Charlie had helpfully forgotten to mention anything personal about Anthony apart from he was from an adopted family and had 2 sisters and 2 brothers who were all together.

Charlie mentioned that _he_seemed to be extremely tight lipped on any other details. But that did not prepare me for the shock of seeing a man with the appearance of a 17 year old god although according to Charlie he was finishing his last semester doing a medical degree at a correspondence college in the Ivy league and when I registered my surprise as I thought most of it would have to be practical I was told by a smug Charlie that he had already passed the practical years ago although he did demonstrate in front of his local doctors that he was able.

In the end I told him to shut up about Mason and tell me about Renee which he grudgingly did. Mason was only mentioned once an email instead of 20 times. Although I stopped all fantasies in their tracks about Anthony as chances were I would never meet him and he would never like me I did wonder what would happen if I ever did meet him. I also learnt that his siblings were all together and the main reason he took this job was to get away from them.


	6. Bella POV

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters but the story is mine.**

**Bella POV**

I had stayed in the house since we got here only going out once to the store to get some food but apart from that I had just been reading trying to ignore reality and get caught up in the drama of Wuthering Heights instead of my life.

This worked until I had to go to sleep but I just resorted to listening to music as I fell asleep. So far I had listened to the Retrospective album by Suzanne Vega so much that I could sing with very little prompting all the songs on the album albeit not completely in tune.

I had also listened to Belinda Carlisle when I got bored. It was so much easier sorting out someone else's problems than my own. It was the day before school started when we got invited to the Quileute bonfire and we had promised to be there.

So in preparation we went to the dinar to formally introduce ourselves. Most of the people there were a bit intimidating but I quickly found Angela who was pleasant to talk to and who I determined to be a good friend and someone I would make an effort to be friendly with. Mom had gone a bit pale when the other new people were mentioned although I didn't catch why. She seemed to be ok by the time we got back to the house though I did catch her muttering about something being impossible.

Mrs Webber came and collected us for the bonfire. It was interesting looking at the driftwood fire as I had never seen one before. After the meal it was time for the local scary stories. The first few were fun but by the time we got to the cold one legend almost everyone had left and it was only me, Mom & a couple of elders.

Mom was getting gradually more nervous as the story went on but it was only the final but that mattered. The elders had named the Cullens as 'Cold ones' as Mom started having a panic attack it wasn't the first time I had to deal with it but normally there was Charlie or Renee nearby.

We managed to get Mom in to the car but as soon as we got out of La Push I was in for another surprise. Anthony Mason stepped out of the shadows and took my mom away in his arms before I could comprehend that he was there and although I could barely see it seemed as if Anthony was going a lot faster than I thought was possible.

During this the Quileutes looked on in shock but before we had to go to the hospital for a different panic attack they snapped out of it and hurried me back in to the car and told me I was staying at their house and they would drop me at my house early tomorrow so I could get changed and go to school.

When I asked what was wrong they replied that that was Edward Cullen. I was tired but not out enough not to realise that Anthony Mason did not exist and it was Edward Cullen adopted son of the new doctor who was helping Charlie in New Hampshire. Even though according to the last email I got from Charlie he was going to a university and had an apartment in Seattle.

So how on earth did he get back here in time and as I had tuned in just enough I heard that all 5 of the adopted Cullen siblings would be in high school would he bother being in high school if he was taking a university course and volunteering with the police in a city 3 hours drive away.

But there were too many similarities to deny that they were not the same person. Which meant that the only 'plausible' theory was that the Cullens were the 'Cold ones' with a start I went back to the criteria listed for being a cold one and one of them was that they never aged.

The name Cullen was ringing a bell in my head but I couldn't place it until I listened to my I-pod. Carlisle Cullen was where I had heard the name before my Mom's true love since Uni. And I recalled that he had a son called Edward. Great. It had to be the day before school started to realise that your Mom's 'true love' was a cold one and didn't age.

I wondered where Edward had taken my Mom and after deciding that his house was the best option. I wondered what all the rest of the family would say.

Another thing clicked in my mind. Charlie said it was like he could read minds. Maybe he wasn't insane after all and Edward could read minds. In that case I couldn't wait for his reaction to Mom's thoughts but I just hoped he couldn't read mine so he hadn't heard me piece together the pieces.

I decided then that there was nothing I could do apart from go to school the next day and hope Mom turned up.


	7. Carlisle POV

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters but the story is mine.**

Carlisle

It wasn't often I had a phone-call from Alice telling me it was an emergency and I was needed back at the house ASAP. If she was going to ask my permission for something she would just look to the future to see what my answer would be so I must be needed in person.

I was only in Seattle so it took me just an hour to get to the borders of Forks. Although when I got there I saw an extremely anxious Jasper and Alice. Wondering what on earth was going on I stopped and went to them to see what the emergency was. And if I had a million guesses (I used 10 of them, most things could be ruled out because for them I wouldn't need to be here in person) I would have not guessed correctly.

Esme Platt was lying on our sofa after a panic attack after finding out that we weren't human. What a great way to start the day. After I had got past that shock I then realised the implications. We would have to move again and make it seem as if it was all a bad dream.

That would have worked if it was not Esme the only person I could ever truly claim to love in question. At least there was no hope of her loving me back. She only saw me once. It was only then that I realised that Alice had slapped me.

As the parental figure I was not expecting any violence from my children and this was the first time Alice had slapped me. I was about to ask why she did it when she cut me off and said 1 sentence that changed my life completely "She loves you too. It was the only thing she was thinking about when Edward brought her here before he left."

Alice let me process it for 10 minutes before becoming impatient and hauled me (don't ask me how) in to our house after telling me not to breathe. And as I went in to the living room I saw the shocking vision of Esme.

It took all my control to not lunge at her and ravish her. She was wearing a beautiful blue halter neck which emphasised her beautiful figure perfectly. She did not hear me come in but did sense my presence and turned around from the meal she was working on to look at me.

I know a Vampire's memory is faultless but something must have failed, as Esme was more beautiful now than I had ever seen her. Her face was almost identical but now had a look of hatred in it that was not in there before. But before I could question it Alice's earlier words came back to me.

Edward had left, Alice as always was 1-step ahead of me started talking in a voice Esme had no hope of hearing. "Edward finally found his soul mate Bella. Unfortunately she is also his 'Lu Cantante' and he left for Canada as soon as he breathed.

Em's following him but knows that he needs some time by himself. He's also worried that Edward can't resist going after Bella so he's keeping him there." This is the 2nd time Bella's been mentioned. Who was she? "Esme's daughter" I suddenly felt sick.

Esme had a daughter? Where was the father? Maybe I was just a remembered crush. I suddenly felt a rush of despair it was extremely rare for me to go primal but Esme was mine. No one else's and it sickened me that she had someone else's child.


End file.
